Ode to the enduring potential of poetry

[manfredvijars]

BARRY HING THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 10, 2014 12:00AM


ONE of the many lessons of World War I, which began almost 100 years ago with an assassination in June 1914, is its striking affirmation of the importance and, particularly for now, of the necessity of poetry in daily life.

Indeed, this year's anniversary affords an opportunity to reconnect with the potential of verse, a robust linguistic response to the tedium - which so dominates our lives - of emails, SMS and chat forums as well as the "conversation" of seminars, focus groups and advertising.

Such an instruction from a century ago is far from peculiar, given the catastrophe of the Western Front, unlike the wars that preceded and followed it, created some of the most memorable, if not some of the most meaningful, poetry of the English-speaking world; namely from Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, and a host of others such as Robert Graves and Rupert Brooke, and for which The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, who did not fight in the war, represents something of a full stop with its lament for the West.

Any of us can write and rhyme, conjure up puns, metaphors and witticisms, as well as SMS and tweet, but the result is usually far from what would pass as poetic. What the Great War poets taught was the forcefulness and fullness of the written word, and its ability to respond to what matters, immediately and beyond - in their case, the pervasiveness of sorrow and death - in a lasting way.

More specifically, the elegance of World War I poetry, which is generally bereft of sentimentality and triteness, shows verse is always relevant and stays with us. Owen and Sassoon, for example, are still studied and quoted today, although admittedly often in a perfunctory and misconceived manner.

The significance of poetry to the generation of 1914-18 and its ability to articulate itself in verse, indeed, its preference for it as a form of expression over anything else, were natural and logical, given that they were - as the symbolic last Victorians - educated on a literary and philosophic diet of, among others, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Tennyson and Kipling and, of course, Homer and Virgil.

And just as relevant for us is the fact that this poetic surge, which took place from around the start of the 19th century to the early 20th, occurred against a backdrop, similar to ours, of the Industrial Revolution - or the Age of Progress - when industry, science and social rights made huge bounds, leading often to unsettling change. This coincidence of poetry and huge change was hardly accidental.

If anything, such a concurrence is instructive of the necessity of poetry because it is such a highly adaptive and yet simple form for conveying and debating our responses, whether emotional or physical, to anything. More generally, in language, verse remains unrivalled in its ability to economically voice such fundamentals as love, jealousy, disappointment or hope (think John Donne or Emily Dickinson); or sensuality (think Christina Rossetti); or our relationship with nature (think Walt Whitman and Robert Frost).

So why do we, unlike the Victorians who lived in a similar time, neglect poetry so much? Partly it is because it seems to contrast so distinctly against what we want and expect - simple, direct and easy; misperceptions accentuated by the idea that verse is vague, irrelevant and elitist. But that's only so if we compare with it the lowest common denominators, such as the language of reality shows and the expletives of "edgy" contemporary art, all of which still does have its place.

In fact, what could be more direct - and unsettling - as Owen and Sassoon respectively put it of "The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells" or "Sneak home and pray you'll never know, The hell where youth and laughter go".

And yet, at the other end, there is the levity and humour of Dickinson -"God gave a loaf to every bird, But just a crumb to me" - or the inspiration of Frost - "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference".

Another problem with poetry is that it does not always resolve tensions and issues in a manner we customarily expect, that is, satisfactorily and instantly.

If anything, verse demonstrates that for some problems there are no immediate solutions, if any at all. It's not always a comforting lesson.

But how can we reconnect? It may sound obvious, but one step at a time. The advantage of poetry is that it's brief. So there is no harm in reading a few lines or a few verses at a time. Eliot's The Waste Land is seen as lengthy because it's 434 lines long. Poetry should not be read as a book, but as it is intended, in short, pithy spurts.

Barry Hing is a Sydney writer.

[Glenny Palmer]

Thanks for posting Manfred. There may be hope for us yet?

[Neville Briggs]

A very well said article Manfred.

[Neville Briggs]

If anybody is interested, there is an interesting article in to-day's Weekend Australian ( 1Feb,p14,Inquirer) on the theme of the value of poetry.
The article called " Rhymes of the times; poetry still important " is by Kevin Donnelly, senior research fellow at ACU.

He says, in part " In an age of SMS messaging, social networking sites like Twitter and the fact that we are now an iconographic culture, it might seem that studying poetry is obsolete and of little, if any, value. Nothing could be further from the truth. Memorising, reciting. listening to and analysing poetry should be part of every child's education, beginning in the home and continuing at school "
..........." At its best, poetry allows the reader to cleanse the doors of perception and to gain insight about what it is to be fully alive and discover a sense of truth and understanding "

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Neville. I'll check it out.

And thanks, too, Manfred. It is a well written and thought provoking - and encouraging - article.

A couple of thoughts spring to mind.

The first is that the poets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were not competing with radio, movies or TV. It seems to me that they, as much as anything, really blasted poetry out of the water.

The second is that that Hing - very interestingly - does not make a distinction between rhyming verse and free verse. It seems to be generally accepted that the passing of the era of the great rhyming poets occurred with the end of the First World War. This also signalled the end of the great popularity of poetry in general, certainly in Australia. Paterson and Lawson, and even Dennis, were largely spent forces by then. Free verse began its charge in Australia in the 1920s, but it has never rivalled the old masters in popularity, or even come close.

Part of the problem, I am sure many bush poets will agree, is that free verse has become increasingly obscure. Much of it is now completely unfathomable. My suspicion that we rhyming/bush poets tend to make the opposite mistake. Our poetry often spells too much out, and lacks mystery or challenge.

A poetic renaissance? Perhaps. It's certainly a nice idea.

[Terry]

You may well be right Stephen regarding possible flaws in the way we write present day Rhyming Poetry.
There may also be a problem with the perception people get from the name we use 'Bush Poetry'. I know we have gone into several discussions on the subject and I'm not for a moment suggesting that we change it, yet the truth is that much of to-days rhyming poetry is about anything but the bush. To anyone who is not familiar with what's written today and aren't interested in poems about the bush, perhaps the name could put them off?
Or are we simply grasping at straws when trying to work out why poetry in general appears to be slowly loosing it appeal.
I think the other distractions available today as previously mentioned, along with so little poetry being taught in schools these days are probably the main reasons for the decline in interest.

Thanks for starting the ball rolling on this Manfred.

Terry

[Stephen Whiteside]

I have a book of verse for children being published later this year. I'll have more to say about that soon. But on the question of poetry in schools, I have been aware for some time that many of today's teachers also had little exposure to poetry during their own school days, and are therefore rather frightened of it as a classroom topic. My current thinking is that I would like to involve myself in the professional development of teachers on the subject of poetry, and so have begun to make some tentative steps in that direction. If there are any teachers out there able to offer me some advice in this regard, I would be very glad to hear from them.

[manfredvijars]

Stephen, you gave a wonderful discourse on bush poetry for kids in the Aug-Sep 2012 issue of our magazine. That issue and the previous one with Marco are a great foundation for presenting to kids in schools. I'm involved with two local primary schools as resident poet and as a result I've been invited to present at another two schools.

Don't be disheartened Stephen, you've already done great work in sharing your expertise. As much as we love our craft, it's up to others to take up what we offer. So we offer what we have where we can. We can't force people to like what we love ...

[Maureen K Clifford]

some interesting comments here - IMO if we talk it up enough share our web page and FB links around as much as we can - add 'Bush Poet or Member of ABPA etc to our signatures on all correspondence, and be out there and proud then we just might find we've got people wondering, reading and sharing. It's called the ripple effect /networking/being a media slut, but God forbid never 'pushy' and the best thing is it works.

From little things big things grow and a little bush fertilizer makes them grow even better.

[Terry]

I have mentioned before that I have become a somewhat surprised Grandfather in the last few years (didn't think it would ever happen)
I have just returned from Canberra visiting my two grandsons (6 and 4) and both love having books read to them. The thing I found interesting was that almost all the books I read to them were written in a RHYMED poetry format and the kids seemed to love that and wanted their favorite books read over and over again. I found that very encouraging; it's obviously still noticed by the writers of these books have found that using rhymes is an excellent way to reach children.

Good luck with your new book Stephen.

Terry